Prius the Rally Car?

Hi everyone, just thought I would share a hilarious story. I drove up to Montreal, Quebec last weekend just for the heck of it. I wanted to take our other car, but my mother in law preferred the comfort of the rear seats in the Prius, so off we went, trusting the old girl on a somewhat lengthy trip.

Well, despite heavy winds, and having me, my wife, mother and mother in law in tow, the car managed an outstanding 47.8 mpg the entire way. (My car is an American spec prius, so that is not metric mpg!). I drove all the way there on a half tank, about 600 kms. At any rate, my Gen 4 Nav was behaving well, when suddenly, it asked me to get off the highway. We were on our way to an extremely remote Buddhist temple. Google Maps showed a very long and circuitous route, while Prius showed a far more direct route. My Chrysler Nav in my other car verified this route, to an extent, but the last 40 km's were different. I thought, ahhh, what the heck let's give her a try. I recently upgraded the Prius to the 12.1 Navigation Firmware, so that it would have the latest and greatest information.

So I followed its directions and we drove through a rural area, then it became a deserted forest, suddenly the road vanished, and it was just pebbles and dirt! The nav insisted we continue forward. Well, I tell you, I had the time of my life, blasting the Prius like an Eco Colin McCrae, just careening around dirt roads while surprisingly my passengers were equally entertained. The Goodyear Viva 2 Tires are just sensational tires. Then the gravel gave way to light mud, then light mud gave way to sticky gloppy mud. Prius was just chewing through! I was stunned! I never knew that the electric motor was such a champ! I never pushed it hard, and she seemed to be doing great. However, the excitement came to a quick halt when a muddy hill ahead was washed away by severe rain. The Prius tried valiantly, but alas, the tires simply could not cope with the deep sloshy mud, and I was not about to force an electric motor with over 240,000 kms to slog through that. The trouble was, the nav said the temple was only 2 kilometers away! Then I realized what happened. The silly Gen 4 unit after my recent firmware update to 12.1, had turned on the "Allow Seasonal Roads" route option to be enabled. When I turned the stupid thing off, it redirected me to a proper highway and road and although we had to backtrack, I must say, that is by far and away, the most fun I have ever had with the Prius. The old girl still handles so well after all these years, and in spite of Toyota's lack of support for her, my fondness for it just grew more than ever.

The moral of the story, Toyota's upgrades can be great, but can leave you totally stranded if you don't check! Anyway, just thought I would share a funny story. It seems nowadays the G1 forum is littered with repair and complaining stories (myself included! LOL!), that its time to bring some levity to this forum. I would love to hear about any stories you guys might have too!